


It’s Okay to Fall, I’ll Catch You

by AsagaoSylph



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Crying Lance (Voltron), Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Lance (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Lance (Voltron) Has Panic Attacks, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Panic Attacks, Platonic Relationships, Romantic Friendship, Trust, platonic klance, set in season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:25:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23200144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagaoSylph/pseuds/AsagaoSylph
Summary: Allura’s voice blasted over the intercom, and Lance rocketed from the bed with a silent scream, every nerve snapping taut and his breath catching harshly in his throat. His hands grasped uselessly at the air, and his feet hit the ground with sloppy thuds, nearly pitching him forwards. His heart hammered harshly against his ribcage, his fingers yanking on his paladin armor shakily and faster than he ever had, stumbling from the room and dashing down the hall. Keith’s door slid open, his thick black hair flying up as he sprinted alongside Lance, fists clenched and eyes fixed ahead of him. Always so focused on the goal, on where they needed to be, what they had to do. So much more impressive than Lance.Lance swallowed abruptly, breath still shallow, and slammed his eyes shut. No.
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 113





	It’s Okay to Fall, I’ll Catch You

Lance didn’t want to get out of bed that morning. Not at all. The grey of his room was pressing down on his chest, suffocating him and leaving every breath shallower than what was probably the bare minimum required to function. Lance groaned and pulled the blankets tighter around himself, squeezing his eyes shut and curling in around the bundle of sheets. There was a dull ache filling his chest, drowning out all other emotions, and a weight settled across his heart like a lead blanket. He recognized this, hated the familiarity of the whole thing, especially first thing in the morning. It happened sometimes at the Garrison after he had a long week and was so stressed about going back on Sunday that his mind couldn’t handle anything else. Sometimes he couldn’t even be around other people, but that was only when it got really bad. Usually he just had to have some sort of noise, something he could focus his mind on other than the deafening silence or swirling thoughts or dread and fear filling his stomach and creeping up his throat—

And this was why it sucked so much that his phone had run out of charge ages ago. Lance moved carefully, knowing that any sudden movements would only aggravate the anxiety curling in his chest, removing his sound-cancelling headphones and laying them to rest beside him. Then he slowly slid his arm back under the blankets, curling the sheets into a ball to hold tightly against his still aching chest. If he just rested for a bit longer, if he could just pull himself together even a little—

“ _PALADINS, COME TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY! ZARKON IS ATTACKING A NEARBY PLANET! WE MUST GET THERE BEFORE THE CIVILIANS ARE WIPED OUT!_ ” Allura’s voice blasted over the intercom, and Lance rocketed from the bed with a silent scream, every nerve snapping taut and his breath catching harshly in his throat. His hands grasped uselessly at the air, and his feet hit the ground with sloppy thuds, nearly pitching him forwards. His heart hammered harshly against his ribcage, his fingers yanking on his paladin armor shakily and faster than he ever had, stumbling from the room and dashing down the hall. Keith’s door slid open, his thick black hair flying up as he sprinted alongside Lance, fists clenched and eyes fixed ahead of him. Always so focused on the goal, on where they needed to be, what they had to do. So much more impressive than Lance.

Lance swallowed abruptly, breath still shallow, and slammed his eyes shut. No. That train of thought went nowhere good; better to nip it in the bud now than let it last. For now, all he had to do was his best. That would have to be enough.

“Excellent work, paladins!” Cheered Allura, hands clasped together and a wide smile stretching all the way up to her eyes. “That was your best time yet! And Lance, that was an especially good job; you beat your top time by over thirty ticks! As it stands, you all would have been in time to save the planet! I am quite impressed!”

“Thank you, Princess Allura,” replied Shiro, beaming with pride for his team. “We’ll have breakfast and get right to training. Is the schedule still the same as yesterday?” As he and Allura continued to babble, Lance kept a smile plastered on his face. His heart heaved, his breath was barely enough to stay standing, and his chest lay heavy against his lungs. He was grateful that Allura was satisfied with the results, and if he was being honest, there was no way he would have gotten up unless scared into action, but now he was almost positive that he wasn’t getting through this day without a panic attack.

“Awesome, I’m going to go whip up some breakfast! I’ll call you guys when it’s ready,” called Hunk as he strolled from the room, and Lance’s stomach tightened.

He wasn’t hungry. Well, that wasn’t quite true, he knew that his body was hungry. He just didn’t have the energy to feel hungry. With a light sigh, he turned and strode from the room quickly, calling to Pidge’s inquiries that he was going to change into normal clothes. Not a lie. Not a lie at all. Just not the full truth. Lance wasn’t about to say that he was going back to his room to change and then curl up in the center of the room and hug his pillow to his chest until he could breathe again, breakfast be damned. Then he would come back out, and pretend that nothing had happened. That he was fine. Because he was going to be fine. This had happened before, it would happen again, and that was okay. Because he knew he could make it through. He always had.

“Lance?”

The paladin’s shoulders tensed automatically, spine straightening and smile sliding back onto his face like a second skin.

“Hey, what’s up Keith? Couldn’t stay away from the Loverboy, huh?”

He winked and made finger guns at the older teen, feeling as if every motion was sucking more and more energy from him. Soon he would be left hollow.

Keith frowned, eyebrows furrowed and indigo orbs piercing as a winter night sky. Lance tried to suppress a gulp, his chest tightening and breathing becoming lighter. Was the lighting really that pale?

“You look like you’re going to pass out,” stated Keith, scrutinizing as his mouth tightened into a thin line. “What’s going on?”

Lance’s heart kicked into overdrive, throat completely closing up until he thought he would choke, and all breath evaporating in his chest like magic. Not now. He couldn’t handle a question like that right now. He didn’t have the energy to lie, or the strength to tell the truth. He had nothing left to fight with anymore. So he just smiled.

“I’m fine.”

“Liar.”

Lance cringed at the word, and tightened his shoulders as if to curl in on himself even more, but Keith kept talking. “I know when someone’s trying not to break down. Come on, Lance.”

Gloved fingers reached for Lance’s, and he flinched away.

“Come on.” Keith’s voice was soothing, kinder than Lance had ever heard, and he curled in on himself even tighter, arms across his chest and fingers twisted in his sleeves. He shook his head hard.

Hands rested on his shoulders. His chest was heaving—hands were guiding him away—and his heart was a thunderstorm—hands were coaxing him into a cooler room—his body was on fire—hands were on his, easing him down onto something soft—and he couldn’t breathe—hands on his cheeks—his pulse—there were hands suddenly next to his racing pulse—

“Hey, hey,” murmured Keith, sitting next to Lance on the bed and cradling the taller boy’s face in his hands. “Hey, shhh. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”

Lance nodded vigorously, breath hiccuping in his chest, and Keith’s eyes melted. “Okay, okay, you know that. Good. Hey, can you hear me breathe?”

Another nod.

“Okay, well, think of this like a competition. I bet you can’t match me. Bet you can’t get your breathing as slow as mine.” His tone was slightly teasing now, a smile coming to his lips as his fingers softened against Lance’s cheeks. “Come on, Lance. Beat me.”

A half-strangled sob wrenched itself from Lance’s throat, but before Keith could swear or pull back or think that this was somehow his fault, a pair of arms wound around his back and pulled him close. Lance buried his nose in Keith’s shoulder, a shuddering breath rocking his entire body, and a whimper nearly shattering Keith’s heart. He sounded so fragile. Lance, all bravado and winks and finger guns and stupid jokes, fell to pieces. His cries, muffled by Keith’s armor, filled the room, shaking fingers clutching Keith as if terrified that he would somehow slip away, tears staining Keith’s covers. Keith didn’t care.

He cared about the hiccups wrenching at Lance’s breath, the sudden quickening that signaled a spiral into full hyperventilation. He cared about the sagging chest, the silent scream Lance gave, eyes screwed shut and entire body freezing as no sound came from his locked jaw. He cared about the hands grabbing desperately at the air, the shaking fingers resting against Keith’s face, the heaving sobs that seemed to rock the entire bed.

He cared about the careful breaths, slow, mimicking Keith’s, the flurry of wheezing when Lance couldn’t seem to get enough air, then the stillness when he remembered that he was trying to breathe normally again. He cared about the muffled cries, the tremble of Lance’s fingers, and he cared about the racing pulse centimeters from his fingers. Keith gulped, running a hand through Lance’s tangled hair and letting out a long, slow exhale.

“Come on, Lance. Breathe. Slow.”

Lance’s entire body went taut as he screamed silently into Keith’s armor again, but the older boy kept his hands steady on the breaking paladin.

“You’ve got this, just follow my breathing. You trust me, right?”

A sharp jerk of the head, not dissimilar to a nod, was enough for Keith, and he tightened his grip on Lance, resting his forehead against his gasping friend's.

“Then let me lead.”

It was more of a command than anything else, but when Lance managed a longer breath than he had in the last ten minutes, Keith’s glowing smile outshone his harsh tone. It brought the smallest upturning to Lance’s lips too.

Okay, he could do this. Rest his head against Keith’s, hands on his shoulders, and follow his lead. Trust him to ride through the storm along with Lance. His hands tightened around Keith’s shoulders as his chest began to raise in time with the Red Paladin. Okay. Time to fight.

Keith closed his eyes, a deep breath of relief brushing past his lips as he leaned against the wall behind his bed, Lance cradled limply in his arms. His friend's full-body shaking had been reduced to a trembling vibrating through his fingers, the broken sobs had sunk into soft hiccups, and (mercifully) Keith could see a consistent rise and fall to Lance’s chest, only occasionally interrupted by a sharp inhale. His usually bright blue eyes were glazed over, unseeing as he stared through Keith’s wall as if trying to block out the rest of the world.

Keith cleared his throat, jolting Lance back to reality, and the Red Paladin nearly winced at the flash of panic that rippled across his friend’s face as he emerged from his other world. Then, with a soft sigh, Lance finally pulled back, eyes lowered and tear stains lining his cheeks.

“Thanks, Keith,” he murmured. “Sorry you had to see that.”

Keith felt a painful tug in his chest, and he carefully laid his hand atop Lance’s, slowly so the teen could see what he was doing.

“Hey, come on,” he said with a chuckle, “you finally actually beat me in something. May as well celebrate while you can.”

Lance stared, his eyes wide and such a deep blue that Keith felt almost like he was drowning in them, sinking down into an endless, warm ocean.

Then, slowly, a wide grin spread across Lance’s face, curving into his eyes, and Keith felt his own shoulders relax.

“Now hold up, I’ve beat you before!”

“Oh yeah, like when?” Snorted Keith, and Lance immediately rose to the challenge, bringing a content smirk to Keith’s lips.

“I found the Blue Lion first, and you didn’t! Plus, I was the first to destroy a Galra cruiser!”

“Yeah, only because I didn’t have a Lion!”

“Because Blue chose me! So I won!”

Keith groaned and threw up his arms in surrender, and Lance let out a bubbling laugh. It wasn’t quite like his usual ones, often so loud and hearty that he pulled back with tears in his eyes, but it was just as warm somehow. And, for now, that was enough for Keith.

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing!
> 
> Once again, an old work (actually my second-oldest in the fandom), though I have special news!! Magnetic In Our Purple Season 8 is coming along, and A Home Changes With You is fully plotted out! I should have that and Welcome to the College Show (ft. Klance) updated soon! So, I hope you enjoy that!
> 
> My tumblr is at https://asagaosylph.tumblr.com/ :D


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